The Rising Challenge of Space Debris

Strategic Security Analysis - 2017

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Key Points

There are an estimated 500,000 marble-sized or larger debris objects (≥1 cm) orbiting Earth, some 23,000 of which are tracked and monitored (≥10 cm).

The impact of a 1-cm-sized debris on a spacecraft is approximately equivalent to the energy released by an exploding hand grenade.

Debris can adversely affect the functionality of satellites or other assets, including services such as earth observation, timing/ navigation/positioning services, telecommunications, and space science.

Low-Earth orbit is presently the most congested orbit. It may have reached saturation point, requiring active debris removal activities to mitigate the problem over the long run.

All three orbits (LEO, MEO, HEO/GEO) will become more congested over time. Contributing factors include the rising commercial interest in space and the rapid increase in the use of small satellites such as picosats, nanosatellites/cubesats and microsats.

Certain mitigation measures, such as installing mobility features into small satellites to facilitate de-orbiting, could also be used for “offensive” space manoeuvres.

There are numerous internationally accepted best practices to mitigate space debris, but these may not be sufficient to stop or reverse debris growth.

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